Bottle-Specs
by takethefirewhiskyandrun
Summary: "What's she done to herself?" Sirius whispered quite loudly. There was a slight scuffle and some mumbles as I squinted, trying to make out their shapes and turn towards them."Um, are these yours?" Potter said uncertainly, after a few moments. "If you're talking about the embarrassingly thick, probably broken glasses on the floor, then yes. And…I can't see without them," I babbled.
1. A functional member of society

_Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter world or Characters._

* * *

**BOTTLE-SPECS**

Chapter One: A Functional Member of Society

I was following them again. If I were a functional member of society, I might say I wasn't proud of it but truthfully; I don't really have any shame when it comes to them. I was completely fascinated by the four Sixth Year boys and everything they did or said. Marlene wasn't impressed when I suggested that we walk three floors out of our way to watch them, so she left me alone in favour of getting to Charms on time. I didn't see what the fuss was about - Flitwick was a slap-on-the-wrist sort of Professor, which was much preferable to our Head of House, Professor McGonagall – the maim-and-torture sort.

"He knows he almost lost us the Cup last year, surely he must have guessed that he'd have to try out again," James Potter said, sweeping a hand through his messy black hair and scowling at nothing in particular.

"Maybe he just assumed everyone on last year's team would be invited back," Remus Lupin suggested as he pulled a worn piece of parchment from his pocket and studied it for a moment. "Let's go down the Charms corridor, Filch is up ahead and I don't fancy explaining where we disappeared to this morning," he added. How Remus could be sure that Filch was up ahead when he was nowhere in sight was puzzling to me, but at least that meant that I wouldn't have to circle back around in order to get to Charms.

"That doesn't mean that I'll have to make the rest of the team try out again, does it?" James asked the boy on his right in alarm. Sirius Black, easily the most handsome of the group, with his dark wavy hair and brooding grey eyes, squinted and pulled a face. I fought not to sigh too loudly in response.

"I don't see why you have to go through all the fuss. He wasn't that bad – we worked quite well together," he said with a shrug.

"That's because he was so crap, he let you do everything!" James replied and Sirius exchanged a grin with Remus and Peter Pettigrew, the last and shortest of the four boys.

"Isn't that a good thing?" Sirius asked, winking at James cheekily.

James laughed. "Yeah, until you take another bludger to the skull and we're left with _him_ to save the day."

Peter patted Sirius on the back and said, "Better not risk it, mate – you have a habit of getting hit in the -"

"Oi! Bottle-Specs – your skirt's tucked in to your knickers!" a loud, irritating voice called, covering up the rest of Peter's joke and the laughter that followed and forcing me back to my own pathetic life. After I'd subtly checked to make sure my skirt wasn't actually tucked in to my knickers, I sighed deeply and turned to face Bertram Aubrey, a fellow Fifth Year but a Ravenclaw and also, one of the worst humans I'd had the displeasure of meeting. He and his friends laughed hysterically at me before making circles with their fingers and holding them up to their eyes. Several people in the corridor laughed as Bertram smirked and shoved past me.

"You're such a loser, Effie Savage," he said as he and his friends exchanged high fives.

I wish I could say I wasn't affected by his rather lame insult but since he had invented the nickname that the majority of Hogwarts knew me as, unfortunately, I was.

'Bottle-Specs' wasn't a particularly clever nickname but sadly, it was a pretty accurate description of my appearance. Since starting Hogwarts, I had worn round glasses with thick, ugly, black frames and even thicker lenses that magnified my eyes to three times their actual size. My parents were muggles and not particularly very well off and hadn't able to afford much better until recently when, as a fifteenth birthday present, my mum had begged my father to buy me contact lenses – something I'd wished for since I was eleven. The trouble was, now that I was fifteen and had spent four years getting teased and ridiculed, I found that I didn't really want to wear the contacts anymore. I knew my parents would be disappointed at the wasted money, my dad especially, but I figured what he didn't know couldn't make him angry.

I know…I know - you are probably wondering why on earth I would choose to wear spectacles that likened me to a bug when I could have my 'Ugly Ducking turns to Swan' moment. The problem was; that every time I changed something to do with my appearance, either no one noticed, or I was teased even worse. There was the time when I figured out how to make my mass of frizzy, curly hair look nice with some very expensive potions from Gladrags in Hogsmeade, and not _one person_ seemed to notice that the ugly Third Year Gryffindor didn't resemble someone out of a loony bin anymore. Even worse, was last term when I'd been allowed to remove my god-awful braces and Wendelin Warcroft had said, "Aw babes, did you think that taking all of that stuff off your teeth would suddenly make you pretty? That's so_ cute_."

So, if people could make fun of me when I'd lost my metal mouth, I was quite sure they'd do the same if I suddenly stopped wearing my glasses. I was used to the bullying I got now and had even learned to become immune to the usual taunts. I had no interest in conditioning myself for a whole new set of insults, thank you very much.

I must have looked depressed when I walked in to Charms ten minutes late because Professor Flitwick merely frowned, but Marlene rounded on me immediately.

"What's wrong? I thought stalking the Marauders was supposed to make you happy not look like you've just been to a funeral," she asked as I fumbled with my wand and squinted from behind my foggy glasses to read the instructions on the board.

I shook my head and focused on the toad that was staring at me rather evilly.

"Silencio," I tried and frowned as the toad continued to croak spitefully.

Marlene didn't give up easily though and waved her wand, quickly silencing her toad and then mine for good measure.

"What's wrong?" she repeated.

I sighed. "Just a run in with Aubrey."

Marlene made a little noise at the back of her throat. "What did he do this time?"

"The usual. Anyway, it put me off my walk so I decided I better come to class."

"You have such inventive ways to describe your stalking. Did you hear anything interesting? Ooh, oh! Did Sirius get an owl yet?" She asked sarcastically.

"Actually I don't think he has. I expect James will get him one for his birthday," I smiled and tried to reverse the silencing spell on my toad.

"And of course you know when that is…" Marlene said, shaking her head in a resigned sort of way.

"So do you. It's right around the end of term and he has a huge party in the Common Room every year!"

Marlene laughed and put her hands up defensively. "Yeah, yeah. It's still an unhealthy obsession."

"I was _going _to tell you about what James was saying about Quidditch trials, but now, out of spite, I don't think I will!" I said, folding my arms and sticking my nose in the air dramatically.

"Effie! Did he decide on a date yet?" She asked eagerly, ignoring my expression.

"No – he was mostly whining about Dean. Apparently he's being replaced at Beater," I explained watching as her eyes grew wide and her face lit up.

"They're trying out new Beaters?"

"Apparently, so. Is that what you want to be? I thought you were going to try for Keeper," I said, scratching my head and accidentally forcing an unruly curl to stick up stubbornly.

"I've always wanted to be a Beater – they never have girls playing Beater! I would've settled for Keeper, but if I want to be a Holyhead Harpy then I'll need to stand out," she said, clicking her tongue and smoothing the piece of hair down on my head. It flew back up with a spring and I heard the sound of laughter from behind me.

"It'll take more than that to make her look presentable!" a sugary sweet voice said from the tables behind us. I didn't have to turn around to know it was Wendelin Warcroft giggling with her sidekick, Florence Shipley. Emmeline Vance, their much less irritating friend, let out a labored sigh.

"What did you say, Warcroft?" Marlene said, turning and glaring at the laughing girls. I stared straight ahead but grabbed her wrist and squeezed.

"Don't…please," I whispered. Marlene was braver than I was and didn't have any problems standing up to bullies. It was probably because she might've been popular if she'd really wanted to be. Since she was one of the more talented students in the year, people generally didn't pick on her, but she was also friends with me, which meant spending a lot of time getting in to fights on my behalf. I was grateful to her but that didn't mean I enjoyed the extra attention it brought.

"Oh nothing, babes - inside joke," Wendelin smirked as she twirled a piece of her long, glossy and very straight hair around her finger.

Marlene turned back after a moment and pulled her wrist free from my grasp.

"Merlin I hate that girl," she muttered, waving her wand angrily. Surprisingly, the toad in front of her did not stop croaking but it did grow to about twice its normal size. This distracted Marlene enough to yelp and hurry to put the spell right, but when the toad was once again ordinary sized and silent – she dropped her wand and sat down.

"I wish you'd have let me turn her in to a toad. We could have practiced on her instead."

I laughed, despite myself. "Marlene! You can't do human transfiguration yet."

She smiled and looked at me through one eye. "Yes, but I feel irritated enough to perform extraordinary magic right now!"

"Well…let's leave her human for now and you can teach me how to do this lowly, ordinary magic," I said, elbowing her playfully.

* * *

_A/N: Please review and let me know what you think!_


	2. More Clever Nicknames

_A/N: Thank you for reading and reviewing. I think I had guest reviews on some weird setting so they didn't show, but I've fixed that now. I wanted to stagger how often I updated in hopes of getting more reviews, but I wrote this and liked it so...here we go._

* * *

Chapter Two: More Clever Nicknames

"Um Effie…?" Lily Evans greeted me hesitantly in the common room in the second week of term.

I looked up and froze. As a general rule, Lily Evans didn't usually speak to me.

"Er-yes?"

"We're patrolling the corridors together today," she said with a friendly smile.

"What?" I asked, still a little confused by her acknowledgement of my existence.

"You_ are_ a new prefect, right?" she asked, now looking a bit confused. "I was quite sure I read the timetable correctly." She glanced over her shoulder and then between Marlene and I.

"There's a timetable?" I replied, stupidly.

She didn't make fun of me but smiled and nodded at the notice board, where a colourful schedule had been posted. It was so large that even with my awful eyesight, I could make out the title, "Prefect Patrolling Schedule" from the tables by the windows where Marlene and I sat playing gobstones. I really was atrociously unobservant.

"Um, you can't see it from here but we're scheduled to patrol the corridors together. It's usually a rotation and I guess it's your lucky day," she joked, pointing to herself.

"Oh…uh," I stumbled, looking at Marlene and swallowing.

"So, I'll meet you at the Portrait at nine-thirty then?" Lily asked.

I just nodded back and although her eyebrow quirked slightly, she just smiled one of her annoyingly radiant smiles at Marlene and I before she headed back to where her friends, Dorcas Meadowes and Mary Macdonald sat.

"I didn't know you were so eloquent," Marlene laughed and I groaned.

"She took me by surprise. I didn't know she knew my name," I said, looking over at her.

"Well, to be fair – she might not have. It _was_ written on the timetable," Marlene teased.

Just before nine thirty, after I'd finished most of my homework, I exited the portrait hole and stood there humming to myself and waiting for Lily. At almost ten, shehurried out, stuffing her wand in her pocket and cursing to herself. I discreetly checked my watch. She was twenty bloody minutes late! And she was the one who'd reminded me about patrolling.

"Sorry I'm late. I've been practicing this new charm and I just got it right - so I'm pretty excited," she grinned when she saw me.

"What charm?" I asked, shrugging off my irritation and trying not to sound like an idiot in front of her again.

"Avis," she said before pulling out her wand. "Do you want to see?"

"Sure," I nodded, sensing her enthusiasm though I wasn't sure I much cared to see her flaunt her magical superiority.

She spoke the incantation and with a loud bang, a flock of tiny, bright green birds shot from the end of the wand and circled our heads.

"I love them!" she said, beaming up at them.

"They're very good," I agreed, eyeing them wearily. With my luck, one of them would relieve themselves on my head and I'd end up with another horrid nickname. Bertram Aubrey would probably use his tremendous wit to come up with, "Effie Shit-head" or something equally clever.

"I'm one of the first people to get it right," Lily said, thankfully getting rid of the monstrosities as we begun to walk down the corridor. "And after enduring Potter's gloating all day – I needed that!"

I just nodded back vaguely because I didn't really know how to respond. I was hoping she'd talk about her Sixth Year classmates some more but sadly, she turned the conversation to me.

"So, how's OWL year treating you so far? I remember I was ready to burst in to tears after the first week, they gave us so much homework!"

"It's been okay, although the work has been piling up," I replied, thinking about my several untouched essays.

Lily nodded. "I can relate. Now I've finished Charms, I still have Runes and Care of Magical Creatures to finish before I can go to bed. Sixth Year is awful!"

We turned down a corridor and heard voices coming from one of the empty classrooms.

"Oh brilliant – your first day and you get to bust someone!" Lily grinned. "It's the most fun part of being a Prefect, redeems all of the irritating patrolling hours."

This sounded like the opposite of fun, but I shrugged. "I'm not sure I'd be very good at it."

"Course you will!" Lily replied indignantly. "Here, watch me first and then later hopefully we'll run into a couple snogging in a broom cupboard on the second floor."

I laughed nervously as she grinned and beckoned me towards the classroom door. However, when she saw the people in the room, she stopped short, turned around, and walked away down the corridor. When she reached the corner, she stood with her back against the wall looking blankly in to space. Very odd girl, that Lily Evans.

Curiously, I also looked in to the classroom and saw two Slytherins talking in hushed, secretive tones. Feeling uncomfortable, I walked over to stand beside Lily and studied the strange expression on her face, saying nothing. She took a few deep breaths before attempting to smile at me.

"Sorry – it's just, you know the boy with the black hair? He used to be my best friend," Lily explained. "And…I just – I don't fancy a confrontation with him right now."

I looked at her in alarm. "Er-did you want _me_ to ask them to go to their common room?"

Thankfully, she shook her head. "I don't want you to deal with them alone. Not for your first time. Let's just pretend we didn't see them." Her eyes were a startling emerald green and they were pleading with me. Since I was more than happy to avoid a confrontation with a couple of greasy boys who, based on the dark content of their conversation, were probably looking to become Death Eaters, I nodded and Lily breathed a sigh of relief.

Then, to my immense horror, we heard another group of voices – this time loud and boisterous and very, very familiar.

"Oh great! Potter and his gang…just what I bloody needed. Come on, we can't keep avoiding people," Lily, the hypocrite, muttered straightening up and nodding at me.

I swallowed and followed her as she walked confidently around the corner and stopped in front of three of the boys I spent so much time following.

"Oh, great…" Sirius muttered, frowning and leaning against the wall with his hands in his pockets.

"Evans," James said, grinning charmingly. "You look ravishing in this light." It was probably one of the cornier lines I'd heard him use on her, but he seemed pleased with himself all the same.

"Potter," Lily replied, rolling her eyes. "You lot have to go back to the common room. Curfew was half an hour ago."

Sirius chuckled throatily and exchanged a look with Peter who grinned back a little nervously.

"Was it?" James asked, unconcerned. "I was just at the Library, you see. I must have lost track of time…" he glanced back at Sirius and Peter who both chuckled at this.

"Potter – as amusing as I'm sure you think going to the Library is – if you were actually there, you would know that it closes at nine thirty. Half an hour before curfew," Lily said, putting her hands on her hips and shaking back her long mane of red hair. I thought that pointing out times was a bit rich coming from someone who had been twenty minutes late to Prefect rounds, but I kept quiet.

James looked momentarily stunned, probably by her unfairly beautiful hair flip, and I saw Sirius dip his head down to whisper something to Peter. They both smirked as James recovered.

"Well, you caught me. I was actually at the Hospital Wing – bit of a sore throat," James said, clearing his throat loudly. Sirius yawned and looked at Lily with a bored, indifferent expression on his face and even so, I was jealous. At least he was acknowledging her presence; it felt like I was blending in with the bricks on the wall or something. After a moment, he squinted and his face twisted into a few odd expressions before he shifted his weight on to his other foot and looked at his watch. Every movement was so breathtaking (even the bizarre facial twitches) that I almost didn't notice that Lily was now yelling at James.

"Potter, why do you have to be so infuriating? Can't you just listen to me so that I can get on with my bloody rounds?"

"I could listen to you all day," James replied with a smile.

Lily let out a little shriek of annoyance. "POTTER! Just go! I don't want to take points!"

James laughed at this but stopped abruptly when Lily narrowed her eyes at him. He coughed and looked at Sirius and Peter.

"Well lads, since she's going to 'take points'…"

Sirius shook his head. "Let's just go…we're late."

"Late for what?" Lily asked frowning.

"Wouldn't you like to know…" he smirked before suddenly his face changed to a look of disgust. "What are _you_ doing here?"

"Excuse-" Lily started to say before a rather slimy voice spoke over her in reply to Sirius.

"Oh… it's a nice night for a walk, Black. There's a chill in the air, the moon is full…"

Apparently Lily's ex-friend, considered himself a poet.

When Lily and I turned, the two Slytherin boys that we had avoided earlier stood there looking back at the Marauders with steely expressions. I heard a scuffle and both groups of boys had drawn their wands. I tried to mold myself against the wall to avoid any wayward jinxes.

"Shit," Lily said under her breath as Sirius and James stepped around us to get closer to the Slytherins. Peter kept his wand out but hung back beside Lily and I.

"Snivellus – isn't it past your bedtime?" James said easily.

"Oh, very witty, Potter," the boy named 'Snivellus' replied nasally.

"We could stop being funny," Sirius said in a hard voice as he stepped forward and raised his wand.

"Damn, I wish this weren't your first day," Lily said with a heavy sigh.

"Sorry," I replied quietly, as she took a deep breath, held her head up and strode between the two groups. It was a stupid move, but it _was_ brave.

"It is well past curfew so I suggest you all get to your common rooms – now," Lily said, tapping her prefect's badge and holding the glare from the Slytherin boy who used to be her friend.

"Go," she repeated in a cold voice, looking directly at him.

"Oh, the muggleborn is telling me what to do. I'm shaking…" the other Slytherin said. "Come, Snape."

"Yeah, go on Snivellus," Sirius taunted and although Snape scowled, he broke the staring match with Lily and followed his companion.

"You too," Lily said in a strained voice, nodding at the three remaining boys after a long, heavy silence.

"Evans…" James started but fell silent when she raised a hand.

"Not right now, Potter," she said before walking away, nodding to me to follow.

I lingered just for an extra moment to see all three boys looking at Evans with varying looks of pity on their faces.

* * *

_A/N: I hope you enjoyed, please review and let me know how I did!_


	3. You can always count on Marlene

_A/N: Thanks for your reviews and follows, friends. I hope you enjoy._

* * *

Chapter Three: You can always count on Marlene

"She seems nice," Marlene said as she pulled her long auburn hair in to a ponytail on the top of her head. She then raised her arms over her head and started stretching.

"Yeah, she's all right. And she gets on with _them_," I said as I watched my friend jog on spot. I think just watching her exert herself made me feel out of breath.

Marlene made a face at me. "It didn't sound like she got on with them. It sounded like she was completely unimpressed. Do you want to come running with me?"

I stuck out my tongue. "Ew, no." Not even if Sirius Black was running alongside me, feeding me grapes. Okay, _maybe_ then.

She laughed. "Quidditch Trials are on Friday, I have to be ready."

I nodded. "I'm sure you'll be brilliant. Just make sure you come back in by curfew, I don't want to have to bust you!"

"I can't even imagine you with an ounce of authority. Well – at least come down to the common room and save our seats for when I come back to work on the Potions essay."

I nodded and followed her down the stairs. Thankfully our seats by the window were free so after I waved Marlene away on her run, I settled down and looked out on to the Hogwarts grounds. I could just make out Potter flying around the Quidditch Pitch and I smiled, wondering if Sirius would join him later. It would be nice to have an excuse to go watch him at Quidditch practices if Marlene got on the team but I was careful not to tell her that. She might have decided not to try out in protest of that thought! I was just considering opening my Potions book when I heard someone clear her throat.

I looked up to see Lily Evans staring down at me for the second time that week.

"Hi Effie, can I sit?" she asked politely and I nodded. Surely I wouldn't have to patrol with her again tonight? How demanding _were_ these Prefect schedules anyway?

"I just wanted to apologize for yesterday. I let all of my drama get in the way of your first night of rounds. It's never exactly fun but it didn't have to be as painful as last night," Lily said, tucking a long strand of red hair behind her ear. "I mean, it was bad enough running in to Sev but then Potter…oh, sorry – I'm being insane again."

I smiled at her. "You're not insane." Well, she wasn't _totally _insane.

She laughed. "You're very kind but I really am. Anyway, again – I'm really sorry."

I shook my head. "You don't have to be. It was quite an awkward situation."

"Right?" Lily said, shaking her head. "Well – I've had worse but..."

I watched as she looked out of the window, seeming to disappear in to her own world.

"What's wrong with her?"

Sirius Black was standing next to my table in his Quidditch robes, holding a broomstick over his shoulder and frowning at Lily and…he was talking to me. Me!

"Blerrrr," I said intelligently, looking up at him and trying not to swoon.

He gave me an odd look before clearing his throat. "Hey, Evans?"

She jumped and turned to look up at him "Oh, Black – hi."

He squinted and adorably raised an eyebrow at her. "All right?"

"Yeah, it's whatever," she shrugged. "Um, did you want something?"

"Yeah…" Sirius said, dragging a chair over from another table and sitting on it backwards, leaning his broomstick against the table. Sirius Black was sitting at my table. MINE. Sure, he was here to talk to Lily and I might as well have been invisible, but still - I could practically smell his aftershave! I leaned forward a little, trying to discreetly sniff the air.

"Do you happen to have notes from yesterday's Care of Magical Creatures lesson?" he continued, looking at Lily hopefully and thankfully not noticing my creepiness.

She furrowed her brow and nodded. "Yeah, I do. But – you were really good with the Hippogriffs. Why do you need them?"

He shrugged. "They're for Remus. He was ill and I er- _forgot_ to take notes for him."

"Ill again? Poor bloke," Lily said shaking her head. "No problem, I'll give them to him in Transfiguration tomorrow morning."

Sirius broke in to a big, irresistible smile. "Thanks Evans – you're the best."

Even Lily, who seemed immune to the powers of the Marauders, smiled back at him. I fought not to drool.

"Well, see you," he said cheerfully, standing up and grabbing his broom. He winked at Lily and nodded (with what I was sure was intrigue and not simply politeness) at me before heading to the portrait hole and disappearing through it.

"You can replace your eyeballs now," Lily chuckled and I blushed deeply. She wasn't making fun of me the way most people did, but it was still embarrassing.

"Don't worry – you're not the first to swoon over that particular smile. He's very charming when he needs something. It's just too bad about his fat head."

I laughed with her as she stood. "Well Effie, see you around," she said leaving me there to stare out of the window until I saw the very small figure of Sirius join James up in the air on the Quidditch Pitch.

About an hour later, Marlene returned to the common room with Benjy Fenwick – he'd obviously joined her on their run because they were laughing together as they stretched and cooled down. After she'd waved goodbye to him, she came over and shrugged out of her jacket. She ignored a fourth year whistling at her midriff and stretched again, waving her hands in front of her face.

"Ugh, I'm all sweaty," she said. "But that run was brilliant. Benjy and I even wandered into the Forbidden Forest for a bit."

I raised my eyebrows at her. "Is _that_ why you're sweaty?"

Marlene laughed and her flushed cheeks glowed brighter. "Shut up, Effie. How's the Potions essay going?"

"Slowly. I can't remember a thing about the ingredients that go into the Draught of Peace."

"Oh well let me just run up and take a shower and we can tackle it together, okay?"

"Sure – I'll just sit here and twiddle my thumbs while I wait," I said, reclining in my chair and grinning at her.

"You could look it up in the textbook, you know…" Marlene said, shaking her head.

"Why do that when I can just copy off you later?" I laughed.

"You are hopeless!" she said, smacking me lightly over the head as she headed up to the dormitory.

I half-heartedly opened my textbook but after a few very boring minutes of reading, I decided to stretch my legs a bit and take Marlene's jacket up to the dormitory for her.

When I got to the door, which was open, ajar, I stopped. Peeking in, I noticed that Marlene was talking quite civilly with Wendelin and Florence. Since this happened so rarely, I listened rather than entering the room myself.

"But your stomach is so flat, is it just the running that does it?" Wendelin was asking Marlene.

"Nah, you've got to do crunches too."

"Oh, I can barely do those! They always hurt too much," Florence complained.

"You've just got to power through them. And make sure your neck is well supported, or you might pull something," Marlene shrugged.

"Can you show us?" Wendelin asked and she and Florence buzzed as Marlene demonstrated the exercise. They practiced with her for a moment and Marlene pointed out a few things to help. I was starting to feel very unsettled. I mean – I know it was only bloody exercise moves, but I really didn't think I could handle it if Marlene suddenly joined Wendelin's evil gang. Where would that leave me?

"Thanks Marlene! That's really helpful," Florence said as she jumped up and stretched.

"You see! We're always saying this about you – you could be so popular if you wanted to be. You're cool and smart, you've got this great body and if you just let your hair down sometimes, you would be a real stunner," Wendelin said, grabbing hold of a strand of Marlene's hair and smoothing it down.

Marlene just shrugged in response and began rummaging in her drawers for a towel. I wondered if I ought to go downstairs and pretend that I hadn't heard any of the conversation. Marlene would never be friends with them, would she?

"Absolutely! And Benjy Fenwick _so_ fancies you! He's pretty fit, " Florence added.

"He is. I just don't understand why you're friends with Bottle-Specs – you could do so much better! You're more than welcome to hang around with me and Flo and Emmeline, you know! We're much more the kind of people you ought to be spending time with," Wendelin said, making me clench my fists. Thankfully, I needn't have doubted Marlene for a moment, because she slammed her drawer shut and turned around with her hands on her hips.

"Right. _That_ is exactly why I don't want to be friends with you. You're so fickle. Let's just imagine for a moment that I could put aside the fact that you are the most shallow and self-absorbed girl I have had the displeasure of meeting, I still would never be able to forget the way you treated me in First Year when you all found out that my father was fired from the Auror office. The only person who didn't treat me like a pariah that month was Effie. And on top of that – what would _you_ do when I suddenly flew in to a rage and you didn't think I was so cool anymore? Would you still be friends with me then? Because Effie is – and she's the only one who can calm me down anyway. AND she's kind and has interesting things to say and she makes me laugh. The only time _you_ make me laugh is when I see you doing something spectacularly stupid. So don't for a second think that you are better for me than Effie Savage – because you're not even worth half of her!"

Wendelin and Florence had their mouths open, looking like goldfish and I punched the air in celebration. I could_ always_ count on Marlene.

"Whatever McKinnon," Wendelin finally spluttered. "Come on Flo."

The door flung open and Wendelin scowled when she saw me grinning.

"Get out of my way, Bottle-Specs!" she said as she and Florence pushed past me roughly. I said nothing but stuck my tongue out when they had their backs turned. I entered the dormitory quietly and put Marlene's jacket down on her bed without much fuss.

"I'm guessing you heard most of that?" Marlene asked, eyeing my expression warily.

"Oh no, nothing at all. I was too busy being kind and saying interesting things and making people laugh," I grinned.

"And _that's_ when I _actually_ wonder why I'm friends with you," Marlene sighed, grabbing her towel and heading to the bathroom.

"Because I'm worth twice of Wendelin!" I yelled, laughing as she flipped me off.

* * *

A/N: Good friends like Marlene are hard to find. Thanks for reading, please review!


	4. Wow you must be really blind

_A/N: Thanks for reading! This is the chapter where the story summary comes from. Also thanks to Aithusa48, verapaige01 and Visitor for being my reviewers so far - much appreciated!_

* * *

Chapter Four: Wow you must be really blind

"Pass the toast, Effie."

I barely looked as I groped for the toast hurriedly and passed the dish to my best friend. When she had taken the plate, I propped my chin up on my hand and resumed staring at Sirius who was sitting a few places down. His dark hair fell into his eyes that seemed light silver today as he joked around with his friends. He made the most interesting facial expressions as he spoke. Sometimes he'd squint, other times he'd wink or simply screw his face up oddly, but each and every face he made was just as attractive as the next.

"Oi, Four Eyes, pass the eggs," someone called, making a nearby group laugh. I grabbed the plate of yellow mush in front of me and passed it down the table without a word, anxious to get back to watching Him.

"Don't call her that," Marlene said hotly from beside me, but I didn't pay attention to the rest of the argument. He was eating now, holding his food in one cheek as he listened thoughtfully to whatever his friend was saying. His eyes twinkled before he swallowed hurriedly and burst into laughter once more, reaching over the table with a toned forearm to smack James a high five. When he sat back down, Wendelin, who sat proudly beside him, said something and he nodded with a mysterious, little half smile. This made me scowl and turn back to my friend, just in time to see Professor McGonagall marching off looking irritated.

"What did McG want?" I asked Marlene. Her face was red and several strands of her hair were coming loose from her ponytail.

"Are you having a laugh, Effie? She came over to give me detention for hexing Billy Stebbins," she said, looking at me in amazement.

"Why did you hex Billy Stebbins?" I frowned.

Her eyes looked like they were going to pop out of her head, so I recoiled a little when she answered in a disbelieving voice, "For calling you Four Eyes! Where have you been for the last fifteen minutes?"

"Never mind that. Why would you flip out over Billy Stebbins calling me names? The boy regularly puts his jumper on inside out and backwards."

"Well someone had to say something! You didn't even flinch!" Marlene argued.

"What do you expect, Marlene? If I flinched every time someone called me a horrible nickname, you'd have to ship me to 's with a broken neck," I shrugged as we got up from the table and started to walk up to History of Magic. "Can you imagine the new insults? Effie-bobblehead sounds like an obvious choice."

"Stop joking, you're always making jokes at your own expense," Marlene said, blowing a strand of her rumpled hair up and off her face.

"Anyway," I shrugged. "What's really wrong?"

"I'm nervous about Trials," she admitted with a sigh. "I'm terrified."

"Oh stop. You'll be brilliant. You know how to do that Bludger Backbleed or whatever move in your sleep."

Marlene laughed and shook her head. "Bludger Backbeat, Effie. It's when––"

I'd stopped listening because the Marauders had shoved past us and were now walking in front, with Sirius ruffling James' hair and putting him in a headlock. I kept my eyes on the back of Sirius' head until they rounded a corner and Marlene and I walked in the opposite direction.

"Effie! Effie, are you even listening to a word I'm saying?" Marlene said, waving her hand in front of my face.

"Will you yell at me if I say I was 'with' Him?" I asked meekly, knowing how she would react to this.

"You weren't daydreaming about Black again, were you?" she exclaimed, thankfully forcing her voice down to a whispered hiss.

"Yes and I've decided it's simply not fair that Wendelin gets to sit with him during meals," I said, crossing my arms and pouting childishly. I could feel Marlene practically gushing steam from her ears beside me. "Sorry Marlene, I didn't mean to ignore you," I said, fidgeting with the strap of my schoolbag.

To my surprise, my usually hot-headed friend chuckled. "I know you can't help it when he's around. You turn into a pile of mush whenever you see him."

"It's unhealthy, I know – I promise I am working on it," I said with a grin.

"Good, because if I get on the Quidditch team, you'll have to focus on more than his forearms during matches!"

We both laughed at this as we passed a group of Fourth Year boys who snickered at the sight of me and held their fingers up in circles to their eyes. Luckily Marlene didn't see them as I hastily steered her around the corner only to bump straight in to Bertram Aubrey.

"All right Bottle-Specs?" He said with one of his evil grins.

I sighed heavily in response.

"What did you say Aubrey?" Marlene said, stepping in front of me, raising her wand and pointing it right at Bertram's chest. The tip began to smoke and he yelped as a hole burnt through his shirt.

"Marlene, no – honestly, that was tame for him!" I said, trying to pull her back.

"Yeah Marlene, listen to the Acromantula," Bertram said, holding up imaginary specs to his eyes.

Honestly! His jokes didn't even make sense!

"Come on, it's not worth it," I said, tugging at Marlene's arm and forcing her to lower her wand.

"Piss off Aubrey," Marlene finally said, clenching her fists shakily by her side and turning to walk away with me.

"Good thing she backed off. I wouldn't have felt right dueling a girl, even if she is built like a bloke," Bertram said from behind us and then before I could stop her, Marlene was leaping at him and smacking him within an inch of his life. Unfortunately for me, whilst in an attempt to pull Marlene away, her elbow caught my glasses and they flew off my face and landed on the floor somewhere out of reach.

I was on my hands and knees scrambling to find them when suddenly I heard the stern voice of McG and some loud shuffling as both Marlene and Bertram attempted to plead their cases to the Professor.

"ENOUGH. Come with me, both of you – NOW! Everyone else, go to your lessons," McGonagall demanded and there was a mad rush of people around me heading their separate ways. When the corridor seemed still, I tried in vain to squint so that the blurs of colour would somehow join together and I'd be able to locate my glasses. After about five minutes of searching, I couldn't help it – I started to laugh. I was sitting on the floor probably within a few paces of my glasses and I just couldn't find them. Even worse – I had contact lenses in my trunk that I refused to wear because I didn't want to get teased more than I already did? How pathetic was that? After a while my ridiculous laughter turned to tears and I covered my face shaking with a mixture of sobs and chuckles.

As I tried to get a hold of myself, I heard footsteps and the sound of two boys playfully arguing. Hurrying to wipe my face off on my robes, I got to my knees and tried to blindly fix myself up, as the footsteps got louder.

"I told you - I don't want him back on the team, he was a horrible Beater!" I heard a pleasant male voice say quite clearly.

There was a husky rumble of laughter and I felt my heart skip a beat when the voice of the man I dreamed about, replied, "Yeah, but then I wouldn't have to show up to Trials!"

"Keep on like that and I'll kick you off the team too, Padfoot," James replied, his voice now closer than ever.

"I dare you, Prongs."

And then their footsteps came to an abrupt halt.

Before I could stop myself, I was speaking "Er-hello! If you can see me, can you help me please?"

"What's she done to herself?" Sirius whispered quite loudly.

There was a slight scuffle and some mumbles as I squinted, trying to make out their shapes and turn towards them.

"Um, are these yours?" Potter said uncertainly, after a few moments.

"If you're talking about the embarrassingly thick, probably broken glasses on the floor, then yes. And…I can't see without them," I babbled, feeling my face turn red. What a way to have my first conversation with these boys!

"Wow…"

"Shh! Reparo. Um, okay, I'm going to hand them to you alright?" I heard James say.

"I can see shapes," I said, unhelpfully, reaching out my hands. The glasses were handed to me and I slammed them on to my face in a hurry. There, kneeling in front of me was a worried looking James Potter and behind him stood Sirius with an amused smirk on his face.

"Thanks," I mumbled, taking James' hand and pulling myself up.

"Wow, you must be really blind. That's never happened to me before," he said, tapping the stylish glasses that rested on the bridge of his nose.

"He's lying – he loses them every morning," Sirius joked before he looked right at me and squinted. I felt a blush run over my entire body as he handed me a napkin from his pocket.

"Er, you've got dirt on your face."

"Great," I replied stupidly, taking the napkin from him.

He raised his eyebrows before nodding at James and heading off down the corridor.

"Try not to lose those again," James Potter winked before following his friend and leaving me to turn to jelly.

"To be honest, I'm surprised they were so nice. I've seen them hex people in the corridors for less," Marlene said distractedly as she rummaged around under her bed for something.

I looked at her with my mouth hanging open but she didn't seem to notice.

"How can you say that? He was so…gallant," I protested as she finally emerged from under her bed with the broom servicing kit I'd given her for Christmas last year. She sat down on her bed with an excited hop and began studying her broom for broken twigs to clip. As I watched her, waiting for a response, I wondered if anyone would ever look at me in the way Marlene looked at her broomstick. After I cleared my throat, she looked up in exasperation but replied to my expectant look anyway.

"The way you told the story made it sound like Potter was the gallant one," she said idly as she trimmed a twig.

"But did you hear about Sirius giving me that napkin?" I pressed and Marlene looked up and smiled.

"Yes, yes. Shall I start arranging the wedding?"

We both laughed at that but fell silent as Wendelin, Emmeline and Florence entered the room chattering loudly.

"So, he really asked you to come along to Trials?" Florence was asking Wendelin who studied her nails as they sat down on her bed. Emmeline, who had a pink stain on her shirt, discreetly rolled her eyes at their conversation as she rummaged through her drawers for something new to wear.

"Flo, he's been asking me for weeks. It's important to him because they're choosing the other Beater and he wanted my support, " Wendelin said as she picked up a nail file and went to work on her elegant, manicured hand.

"How could he have been asking you for weeks? I thought James only decided on the date for Trials last Friday," Emmeline said nonchalantly as she changed her shirt.

"How would you know anything about it, Em?" Wendelin asked sweetly, though you could sense the annoyance in her voice.

Emmeline, not one to be intimidated, shrugged. "Well, it only went up on the board at the weekend. Didn't it Marlene?"

Marlene looked surprised to be called on but nodded. "Yeah, I've been waiting ages for the announcement."

Wendelin looked irritated that their conversation had been opened up to the room but smiled in a dignified sort of way.

"Oh babes, are you trying out for the team? How sweet," she said, condescendingly. She was obviously still reeling from Marlene's slam the other day. "You aren't trying out too are you, Einstein? I think we'd prefer if our players could actually _see_ what was going on." She and Florence let out tinkling giggles at this but Emmeline just sighed.

Marlene's eyes narrowed but I replied before she could start yelling. "You know, Einstein is quite a complimentary name to call someone."

Wendelin looked unaffected by my comeback and just smiled in her self-satisfied, wicked sort of way.

"Aw, that's so funny Effie. Too bad boys don't like ugly, funny girls."

Annoyingly, I felt my cheeks turn warm and I looked at the floor without another retort.

"Come on girls, I don't want to be late to watch Sirius at Trials," Wendelin said, spritzing some perfume on to her neck and waving her arms in front of her. Florence followed without a glance at us but Emmeline paused for a moment to look at me a little apologetically and wish Marlene good luck at the Trial.

"I just want to smack that horrible smirk off her perfect face!" Marlene said angrily, as she swung her broom over her shoulder and frowned at me.

"Me too, but don't worry about that overgrown peacock now – focus on getting on to the Team! Are you still nervous?" I said, trying to brush off Wendelin's cruel, but probably accurate remark.

She bit her lip. "A bit. What if they don't want a girl to be Beater?"

"You're stronger than most girls – you'll be brilliant." I said and I wasn't exaggerating. Marlene was extremely fit and struck a rather formidable stance next to most girls our age. Despite what Bertram Aubrey might have said, she didn't look like a bloke, but she was certainly in better shape than some of the scrawnier males that I knew were also trying out for the Team.

"You don't mind coming along to watch, do you? Even if you have to sit in the stands with Her Highness?" Marlene asked as we set off towards the Quidditch Pitch.

I elbowed her playfully and shook my head. "I don't care if I have to endure a few names. Honestly, if the best she can come up with is 'Einstein', I'm not sure it'd even be fair for me to respond! I'm going to be there to watch you get on the Team."

"And I suppose it doesn't hurt that Sirius will be there too?"

I laughed. "No, it doesn't hurt at all!"


	5. Surely this had to be a dream

_A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews and follows! I'm so glad you like my story._

* * *

Chapter Five: Surely this had to be a dream

After bidding Marlene goodbye, I found a place to sit with Benjy Fenwick and Jasper Meadowes, two Gryffindor boys from my year. They were some of the few people who were nice to me, so I enjoyed their company.

"All right, Eff?" Benjy said, patting me on the back. "How's Marlene holding up?"

"She's a bit nervous but I think she'll do fine," I replied. "She's been practicing for this for ages – boring me to death with Quidditch plays that I bet even Potter wouldn't understand. "

"There are quite a lot of vacant spots on the team this year, so she's probably in with a chance," Jasper said. "It'll be nice to have someone from our year on the team for once."

"Oi, Jasper! Did you write Mum back yet?" We all turned to see Jasper's sister Dorcas, a tall, willowy girl with a cloud of pale blonde hair standing behind us with Lily, who waved hello to me.

"I'm getting around to it, promise. I just wanted to watch our friend try out," Jasper said, pointing out Marlene on the ground below. Jasper, who was quite a confident and dashing boy, always seemed like he reverted to being eleven years old when his sister was around.

"Okay, just reminding you," Dorcas said. "See you later!"

"Oh those awful girls are waving us over, Dorcas. Do we have to sit with them?" Lily said, wincing at Wendelin and Florence. I stifled a laugh at this and Lily looked at me questioningly.

"Er, sorry –they annoy me too," I replied, my cheeks a little pink.

Lily smiled but then rolled her eyes at what Dorcas said next.

"Oh come on. Emmline, Remus and Peter are over there. You can just ignore the others," Dorcas said. "I don't want to sit with my baby brother. No offense, Jazz."

"What's the point of having a sister with fit mates when she won't even sit with us?" Jasper complained as the two older girls travelled down the bench to join Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew and my dorm mates.

"I hope you mean Lily Evans and not Wendelin," I said making a face.

"I know she's a haughty jerk, Effie – but she's really, bloody fit," he said as Benjy and I groaned.

"You disgust me," I said.

"I agree. You can't even have a proper conversation with Wendelin – she's horrible," Benjy nodded. "At least Marlene and Effie can go ten minutes without looking in a mirror!"

"Cheers mate," I smiled, though inwardly I knew it was just his way of complimenting Marlene. I was quite certain he fancied her but before I could get anything else out of him, he and Jasper started to point out what was going on during the Trials. Marlene was standing amongst a group of four, extremely bulky boys, nervously shifting her broom from one hand to another.

"Hey Savage – is your mate trying out for Beater?" Florence called to me after a while and I nodded. She and Wendelin fell about with laughter for whatever reason but I was relieved to see that Emmeline, Dorcas and Lily didn't seem to have gotten the joke either. In fact, Lily's face looked so disgusted; I almost started to laugh myself.

"So, she_ is_ trying out for Beater? I thought she might want to be Keeper…" Benjy said, worriedly.

"What's wrong with Marlene wanting to be a Beater?" I said, turning to Jasper and Benjy despite the fact that Sirius Black had just flown up to the stands and was now, very distractingly, hovering nearby and chatting to the group at the end of the bench.

"Dunno if they'll want a girl as a Beater," Jasper said in a low voice. "Black is pretty picky about who he wants to work with and Potter usually listens to him."

"But surely Black will give her a chance…she's good enough!" I said biting my lip as I looked over to where he was teasing Lily and completely ignoring whatever was going on with Trials.

"Come to watch James have you, Evans?" he said cheekily.

She rolled her eyes. "As much as your mate wishes I gave a damn about him, I'm merely here to support Mary and the rest of our Quidditch team," she said, pointing out her friend who was flying around looking for the practice snitch.

"I'll make sure he gets the message," Sirius laughed with Remus and Peter before flying away towards where Potter was beckoning him over.

"Smarmy git," I heard Jasper mutter under his breath.

"How come he didn't speak to you, Wendy? I thought he asked you to come support him…" Florence asked innocently.

"Well he's obviously busy Flo!" Wendelin snapped back, smoothing her hair down and glancing at Remus and Peter who, to their credit, pretended not to have heard.

"Not busy enough to come bother Lily though," Emmeline muttered making Dorcas smile.

"So that's why Wendelin's here – to fawn over Black. Do you reckon if I smoldered at every girl I spoke to, they'd fawn over me too?" Jasper joked making he and Benjy laugh and me, blush.

"Oh no! Not you too, Effie!" Jasper said. "Surely you see through his 'tortured' act."

I shrugged. "To use your words…he's really bloody fit."

"Uh-oh," Benjy interrupted, pointing towards the Pitch. "It looks like they've cut Marlene."

"No!" I said, worriedly, standing up to get a better look. There, sure enough, was Marlene nodding dejectedly at James and flying over to the stands.

"They say I'm not strong enough," she muttered as she sat down beside us. "They barely gave me five minutes. All the boys got at least ten."

"Sorry Marlene," I said, rubbing her back and feeling awful for her.

"Bad luck mate," Benjy said, watching Marlene's face as she bit her lip. "Do you want to skip out and get some hot chocolate from the Kitchens?"

Jasper and I exchanged a knowing look, but with Marlene so depressed, she barely seemed to notice what Benjy was saying. I felt a pang of annoyance with James for not giving her a proper chance just because she was a girl, when I noticed that Sirius was flying back over to the stands and he wasn't heading towards Wendelin.

"McKinnon. Do you want to try out for Keeper?" he asked Marlene bluntly.

"What?"

"Keeper. Blocks the hoops?" Sirius said impatiently.

"Um," Marlene looked at me in confusion for a moment before turning back to Sirius. "Why?"

I wasn't sure why she was acting so extraordinarily dim, but said nothing as Sirius sighed laboriously. "Because you were good and we reckon you'd make a decent Keeper."

"Oh…" Marlene looked a bit speechless as Benjy, Jasper and I looked on in excitement.

"Well?" Sirius prompted, looking exasperated.

"Of course she will!" I spoke up. I felt my cheeks turn pink even though I was barely talking to him directly. I normally wouldn't have even been so brave, but as Marlene was sitting there as uselessly as a potato, I thought that_ someone_ had better take action!

"Yes, 'course I will," Marlene said, standing up and brushing off her robes – finally back to her confident and determined self.

"Good girl," Sirius said with one of his crooked smiles. I fought not to swoon and concentrated on wishing Marlene luck again as she got on her broom and sped off to where James was now trying out a group of Keepers.

"Don't worry," Sirius commented. "She was the best flier we saw. She'd have to miss every single one of the penalties to not get on the team."

And with that, he flew off leaving me feeling both happy for Marlene, and also a bit jittery. That made it _twice_ that he'd ever properly spoken to me. Twice in one day! Oh Ye Merry Hippogriffs – had Christmas come early?

It was dark by the time Trials started to break up and Benjy and Jasper had already left to go to dinner. In fact, the only people left sitting in the stands were Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew and myself – the other girls had obviously gotten sick of waiting too.

James Potter was still talking to Marlene about what I was sure was incredibly dull Quidditch plays, but the rest of the team started to head towards the castle. Sirius had joined Remus and Peter in the seats nearby, drinking from a bottle of water and listening to his friends talk to him about Wendelin.

"She waited the whole Trial for you to say something to her, Padfoot – you could've at least acknowledged she was there," Remus said as Sirius leaned back and wiped some sweat from his brow.

"Who?"

"Warcroft!" Peter answered.

"Oh…I thought they'd all just come to watch like Evans and Meadowes," Sirius said, squinting at the castle. I tried not to smile too widely so I wouldn't be caught eavesdropping.

"Yeah but she said you'd asked her to come specifically," Peter explained making Sirius bark a laugh.

"She has a bad habit of twisting my words, that one," he sighed, stretching his arms over his head. The muscles in his arms rippled as he did so and I unconsciously let out a small gasp that made him turn his head my way. What a first class fool I was!

"Are you waiting for McKinnon?"

Three times? Three times in one day? Surely this had to be a dream.

"Um, yeah I am."

"James is going to keep her here forever…I wouldn't bother waiting. We aren't going to," he said, standing up and picking up his bag from beside Peter.

"Oh, okay," I replied, nodding. Incredibly interesting and witty of me, I know.

He quirked his eyebrow at me before he shrugged and started down the stairs to walk to the castle, Peter on his heels.

"He's right. If you wait any longer, you'll miss dinner. Don't worry about your friend, James will show her where the Kitchens are," Remus Lupin said, pleasantly. I just sort of stared at him because I wasn't sure what to say in response. Usually, the Sixth Year Boys looked right through me rather than speaking to me! Remus smiled and nodded his head towards the castle. "Want to walk back with us?"

"Moony! Are you coming?" I heard Sirius yell from the ground below.

"Okay…" I said, glancing over my shoulder to where James and Marlene were now sitting on the floor and poring over some charts under the light of James' wand.

Hesitantly, I walked to Remus and he held his hand out to me.

"I'm Remus Lupin. I don't think we've met properly before."

"Effie Savage," I replied, my voice wavering. Even though I knew that he was probably just clarifying that my name wasn't _actually_ Bottle-Specs, it wasn't often someone so popular introduced himself to me and it was making me very nervous. I could only hope that I didn't thoroughly embarrass myself and blurt out that his facial hair was coming in nicely – which was true, but probably not appropriate conversation.

"Pleased to meet you Effie," Remus said as we made our way to the ground and begun to walk to the castle, catching up to Sirius and Peter. My heart hammered against my chest as Remus made the introductions and I mumbled in response.

"Your mate must be really good. James gets a bit obsessive when he meets other good Quidditch players," Peter said as we walked.

"Yeah, she is. She's –er- wanted to try out for the team for –er- ages," I said. Although it was a bit easier to speak to Peter because he wasn't very intimidating, I could feel Remus looking at me when I spoke and even Sirius seemed to be listening.

"Well, she can't be any worse than our last Keeper," Sirius said making the other boys laugh. The Keeper from last year had spectacularly put Gryffindor out of contention for the Cup when he let an astonishing ten goals through in less than two minutes. By the time we reached the Great Hall, I had fallen quite silent and simply listened as the three boys talked about their most recent Potions lesson that, from the sounds of it, had resulted in all of them getting some elaborate sort of detention. Then, without any fuss, Sirius and Peter sat down with Lily, Dorcas and Mary MacDonald while Remus turned to me.

"Well, tell Marlene congratulations! See you Effie," he said kindly and I stammered goodbye to him before stumbling off down the table to where Benjy and Jasper were sitting. I felt as though I was walking on air from the time spent with Sirius and his friends and not even the evil look Wendelin gave me as I passed, could stifle my happiness.

* * *

_A/N: Sirius and Effie's first (sort of) conversation! Hope you enjoyed, please review and let me know! Any constructive criticism is welcomed wholeheartedly._


	6. Is that a love-note?

_A/N: Thank youuu for the wonderful response!_

* * *

Chapter Six: Is that a love-note?

"James is so brilliant, Effie – you wouldn't believe some of the plays he's designed. He thinks that I'm going to really change the team," Marlene said on Monday morning the next week as we practiced the Vanishing spell in Transfiguration. It wasn't going well. So far, nobody in our class had been able to vanish even the smallest of snails. I'd tried to trick myself into believing my snail was fading in color, but Marlene had pointed out that I was just casting a shadow and dispelled that theory.

"You should be careful going on and on about Potter like that, Benjy might get jealous," I teased making Marlene turn red and glance over at Benjy as she waved her wand. Then with a spectacular flourish, she managed to vanish the shell on the snail in front of her. I would have congratulated her if my wand hadn't suddenly made a loud noise and spurted black goo all over the Florence, who was sitting in front of me.

"Ew! I know you can't see Bottle-Specs but try to use your brain at least!" Wendelin said making the class laugh as Emmeline waved her wand and removed the gunk from Florence's hair.

"Sorry," I muttered, my face as red as a tomato. I wished that I'd had the guts to say that the goo was probably an improvement on Florence's childish pigtails, but I was far too mortified to speak.

McG didn't seem fazed, however. Thankfully she didn't add to my humiliation and draw attention to my mistake, but chose to praise Marlene instead. "Almost there, McKinnon. Keep practicing. It usually takes a few lessons to gain control of such an advanced spell."

"Not for everyone, Miss," said a gorgeous husky voice from the front of the room.

I looked up to see Sirius standing at the front of the room, leaning against the doorway and smirking at Professor McGonagall. There was a slight scuffle as several girls, including Wendelin and Florence (and _okay_, me too) attempted to fix their hair and sit up straighter. It was really too bad that I didn't know how to produce the black goo on command – it would have been an incredibly opportune moment.

"Ah yes, Mr. Black – I seem to recall you succeeding during the first lesson," Professor McGonagall said, quite pleasantly. I was a bit surprised at her candor, considering she was usually so strict, but Sirius didn't seem in the least scared of her as he walked in and met her beside her desk.

"So, whose detention slip am I signing today, Black?" McGonagall said, sitting down at her desk and holding her hand out.

"Actually Miss, Professor Slughorn sent me," Sirius said, handing her a note.

"Ah, yes! I must say I approve of Professor Slughorn's approach. For once you can use your brains for something useful!" She looked at Sirius over the top of her glasses.

Sirius smiled. "If I must, Professor."

"Very well, I will select the student and send them to you during Lunch. You can go now," McGonagall said, looking through a stack of papers. Although this conversation made little to no sense to anyone else, Sirius seemed to understand and nodded. He then winked at Wendelin who was waving at him and left the classroom with his hands in his pockets.

"I wonder what that was about?" I said to Marlene who was holding her wand up and concentrating very hard on something in front of us.

"What?" she mumbled.

"Sirius Black was just in here about some weird detention that involved McGonagall sending another student to him," I explained, even though she didn't seem to be listening at all.

"Hmm. I… wonder…why…" she muttered before there was a sudden shriek from the front and Wendelin was clutching her head that was now balder than a baby's bottom.

"Never mind!" I choked out as we both fell about laughing.

After Marlene had reversed the spell and McGonagall had pish-poshed Wendelin's claim that she had vanished her hair on purpose, the bell rang and everyone hurried to pack away their things and go to Lunch. Just as I was leaving the room however, Professor McGonagall stopped me.

"A word please Miss Savage. Go ahead McKinnon," McG said, indicating the seat in front of her desk.

"Euphemia…" she began. Most teachers usually called me by my nickname, Effie, but I'd always been too afraid to ask McGonagall to do so. "You have really been struggling in my class."

"I know, Professor. I promise I'll try harder," I said, pushing my glasses up the bridge of my nose.

"Well, I have a suggestion that may be helpful to you. Do you know the Sixth Year boy who was in the classroom earlier?"

I blushed but nodded. "Sirius Black?"

"Yes. Black is extremely talented at Transfiguration but also a self-confessed troublemaker. For his most recent detention, he and his friends have been assigned to help students younger than themselves for a few hours this week. I have been asked to choose a student that I think can benefit from his Transfiguration expertise and I have chosen you."

"Me, Professor?" I asked in a small, squeaky voice.

"The extra coaching from a peer could really do you some good and as childish as Sirius Black can be, he is very good at Transfiguration," McGonagall nodded.

"So, for his detention…_I'm_ being punished?" I said, feeling quite faint. I absolutely _couldn't _face hours alone with Sirius Black.

McGonagall looked at me over the top of her wire-rimmed spectacles. "I wouldn't look at it as punishment. It is an excellent way for you to learn and I should hope that you would welcome this opportunity to prepare for your OWLs."

"Yes, Professor." She had a talent for making me feel guilty for being so stupid, that woman!

"Very well, please take this to Mr. Black during Lunch and introduce yourself," McGonagall said, passing me a scroll. I took it with shaking hands and stood up, dreading the moment where I'd have to give him this message in front of the whole school.

"Euphemia, don't look so worried. He won't bite," McGonagall said with a rather too understanding smile and suddenly, I quite hated her.

Every step felt heavy as I walked to the Great Hall. For once, I was really not excited to see Sirius Black.

He was eating an apple when I entered the Great Hall. He was taking large bites as he nodded at something James was saying to Peter and laughed at the look on Remus' face. He looked gorgeous as usual but I didn't want to look at him. I came to a stop in front of the four boys and they all fell suddenly quiet, as if wondering why on earth I'd come to speak to them. Part of me was wondering why myself!

"Erm…" I said wittily, holding the scroll out to Sirius.

He raised his eyebrows and looked at his friends in confusion. I saw a slight smirk fall on his mouth as he took the scroll from me and someone down the table let out a whistle. I closed my eyes hoping that this would go quickly and I could disappear. When I opened my eyes, Sirius looked much less amused.

"Okay Euphemia. Professor McGonagall wants me to help you with Transfiguration for my detention. We're supposed to go to the Library at six tomorrow. I'll meet you there, okay?" He said briskly, nodding at me before crumpling up the note and taking another bite from his apple. This response was humiliating for several reasons. For one, he'd called me Euphemia, and for another, he seemed more compelled by his apple than by me.

"When's Tofty making you teach the less fortunate, Prongs?" he asked James, as if I wasn't still standing there and taking another inadvertent shot at my self-confidence. While Potter answered, I tried to escape hoping no one would notice that I looked like a tomato. Unfortunately, I had no such luck.

"Oi Black – what's Bottle-Specs given you? A love note?" I heard the voice of Bertram Aubrey shout and I squeezed my eyes shut in dismay. As several people laughed and made embarrassing kissy noises, I opened one eye to see Sirius smirking and looking unconcerned.

"Just a detention notice, Aubrey. You don't need to be jealous."

Everyone in the general vicinity laughed at this, so despite my embarrassment, I managed to find my seat next to Marlene and duck out of everyone's line of sight.

"Aubrey is such a prick," Jasper said, glaring over at the Ravenclaw table.

"If I didn't already have a detention for duffing him up, I'd do him in," Marlene said, angrily. "What was that, by the way?"

"Sirius Black has been assigned to help me with Transfiguration as a detention," I said, dully and taking a large bite of a tough piece of bread. Perhaps if I got lucky, I would choke and die.

Marlene looked at me in surprise while Benjy and Jasper groaned sympathetically.

"That smarmy prick is going to teach you?" Jasper said.

"Sounds more like a detention for you," Benjy added.

"Apparently he's good at Transfiguration," I mumbled, putting my goblet of ice-cold pumpkin juice against my cheek hoping to get rid of the redness.

"You're not happy?" Marlene asked under her breath when the boys had started to talk about something else.

"No! I freeze every time he's around, Marlene. I can't speak to him!" I said, feeling panicked.

"He's just a person like anyone else. I mean, I know he's a good-looking bloke, but don't be nervous – it'll be fine!" she assured me, but as much as I wanted to believe her, I just couldn't.

* * *

"We've got Herbology last thing. Brilliant – I'll smell like dragon dung when I go to see him. Just how I always pictured it," I said miserably as Marlene and I made our way to the greenhouses. It had been a long day and a half as I tortured myself about having to spend my evening with Sirius Black. But then, as slow as the wait had seemed, now that the dreaded meeting was only an hour and a half away, time was slipping by me alarmingly quickly.

"You'll have more than enough time for a wash, stop panicking!" Marlene said, shaking her head. "Look, I've spoken to him at Quidditch practices. He's really not that scary – a bit full of himself but okay. Once he gets talking he actually won't shut up, so just relax. I promise he's not as cool as he seems."

Clearly Marlene was blind and deaf and dumb and had never told me.

I gave her a look and she shrugged.

"Well, he isn't! Just pretend you're talking to Jasper or Benjy – there's no difference."

"Except that I'm not in love with Jasper or Benjy!"

Marlene laughed and I shoved her in annoyance.

"Ow! Oh, okay fine, you're in love with him. But he'll never be in love with you back if you don't act like yourself!"

I rolled my eyes. "He'll never be in love with me, full stop! I'd just prefer if he didn't think I was the epitome of loserdom."

"Aw babes, but you are the epitome of loserdom," Wendelin said as she passed us, her arm linked with Florence. The pair of them burst into loud cackles of laughter but I bit my tongue and Marlene just made a face. Sometimes it just wasn't worth fighting back – especially not when she used my own self-deprecating humor against me. Emmeline sighed tiredly from behind us, not hurrying to catch up with the other two girls. Not for the first time, I wondered why she was friends with them when she seemed so irritated by them most of the time. It must have been exhausting for her.

"What's wrong Effie? You look all panicky," Emmeline said, falling in to step with us.

"She's got a detention with Sirius Black tonight and she's nervous about it," Marlene explained and even though I grimaced at her for telling Emmeline, she just rolled her eyes. It was true that Emmeline was more like Lily Evans than Wendelin, but that didn't mean I wasn't afraid of her making fun of me.

Emmeline chuckled. "Oh, yeah you've got one of the Marauder's tutoring sessions, haven't you?"

"Yeah, I have Black for Transfiguration," I said, trying to keep the fear out of my voice.

"That reminds me – I'm supposed to tell you not to be late. But to be honest, I wouldn't worry about it – Dorcas says he's usually late to everything." She smiled at me but when I only nodded, she cocked her head to the side and looked at me carefully.

"You're not really nervous, are you?"

I just stared at her and she smiled reassuringly.

"Look, I know he seems intimidating but he's quite a friendly bloke actually. Sometimes he makes jokes that you won't understand or he'll give you a couple of his weird looks, but he can be very sweet when he's actually paying attention."

"Yes but that's all very well when you know him, Emmeline. Do you really think he'll be 'sweet' to Bottle-Specs?" I said, giving her a skeptical look. To my amazement, she turned a little red.

"Don't call yourself that. And we're not all like Bertram Aubrey or Wendelin – some of us don't care what you look like," and with that, she swept away inside Greenhouse One leaving Marlene to voice what I was thinking.

"If she doesn't care what people look like, how come she's friends with Wendelin?"

* * *

A/N: Hope you enjoyed, please drop a note to let me know! Thanks.


	7. Rather Louder than Allowed

_A/N: Thanks for your response to my story so far! Sorry to keep you waiting._

* * *

Chapter Seven: Rather Louder than Allowed

I knew that Emmeline had meant well, but considering the fact that she'd never stood up to anyone who called me Bottle-Specs, I didn't much respect her words of advice. In the end, I just decided to wing it: in order to speak like a coherent human being, I would just have to try not to look at him too much. I would probably end up looking cross-eyed, but it was a necessary measure to take to avoid him finding out that I was not only visually-challenged, but also socially-impaired. Unfortunately, Professor Sprout let us out a bit late and I had to run like hell to get to the bathroom first before I went to the Library. When I got out of the shower, I put on whatever clothes I could find quickly, tried to squeeze the excess water from my thick, curly hair and legged it all the way to the Library arriving only five minutes late. I paused, hiding behind a corner to look at Sirius who was leaning against the wall outside the double doors leading to the Library. He was whistling with the signature, bored expression on his face as he glanced at his watch and waited. I took a deep breath, glanced in a dusty mirror on my right and jumped at the sight of my hair. Without the usual hair products I used, it was drying into a puffy triangle, so I hastily twisted it in to a bun on the top of my head and sighed at my reflection.

"As good as it's going to get, Love," the mirror said rather meanly. Since it wouldn't do to get into an argument with a mirror, I just turned around the corner and cleared my throat uncomfortably at Sirius. He looked up, a mixture of boredom and irritation on his face when he saw me.

"Er…hi" I said, elaborating on the usual greeting of "Er".

He looked at his watch and his expression flickered. "Did Emmeline give you my message?"

I nodded. "Er- yes…but…"

"Well, I guess at least you're not a swot who turned up early. You ready then?"

"Um..."

"My mate Remus said that we've met once before but I don't remember it. I'm Sirius," he said, holding his hand out.

"Effie," I replied, breathing as evenly as I could as I shook his hand. It was warm but dry and a little rough while mine was sweating profusely. Thankfully he had the decency not to wipe his hand off on his robes and just continued our conversation.

"Ah, he said that you didn't go by Euphemia. I don't blame you. If there were a nice way to shorten Sirius, I'd do the same. It's a ridiculous name."

No it wasn't, it was a beautiful name. So, I just sort of shrugged at him. He studied my face for a moment and squinted.

"Do you usually have your hair down?" he asked.

"Um, yeah but it was all wet and dried a bit weirdly," I said, shocking myself by replying with more than three words. More than that, I was shocked he'd noticed anything about me at all.

He smiled. "So you can talk, then? I was beginning to wonder if you were mute. Shall we go inside? I'm supposed to report to Pince before we start."

I nodded and he chuckled before leading me in to the Library and looking around, scratching his head. He turned to me again with a sheepish smile.

"Would you believe I haven't been in here since Second Year? Where does Pince usually sit?"

"Well um, her desk is over there… but usually, she just walks around stalking people," I joked weakly, but was surprised when he laughed.

"So, do we just wait until she starts stalking us?" He replied, looking around the Library.

"Yes…or we could go look for her." That was the ticket – I just had to say reasonable, normal things like that.

"MADAM PINCE!" Sirius shouted suddenly, making me jump and causing every face in the Library turn to us in shock. The long neck of the Librarian popped out from behind a shelf, her face looking scandalized.

"Well, that'll work too," I muttered. Maybe reasonable and normal were a little too dull for him.

"Quiet!" Madam Pince said in a strangled whisper as she rushed over to us.

"Sorry," Sirius whispered theatrically. "But I need you to sign this."

She glared at him before reading the slip, signing it and waving it in his face.

"I keep this until you're done. I'm watching you," she whispered, pointing first at her eyes and then at us. She reminded me a bit of Filch's cat and I wondered idly if I'd ever seen the two in the same room at the same time. I brushed off my crazy thoughts however, because Sirius was talking.

"Wonderful," Sirius said to Pince with a curt nod before gesturing for me to follow him. "Let's go hide somewhere so that she can't see us."

"She sees _everything_," I said, making him chuckle again as we headed off down one of the stacks towards some empty tables in the back.

When we'd sat down with no one in our general vicinity, I started to get nervous again. The glow from the setting sun was falling on Sirius' face making him all bronzed and breathtaking, so it was difficult to think, let alone speak.

"So, why are you so terrible at Transfiguration?" he asked, bluntly.

That shook the gold off the image and I frowned. "I'm not terrible – I'm just…challenged. I can't do the Vanishing spell. It just won't work for me."

He reclined in his seat and studied my face. I blushed but didn't look away. I wanted to cherish the moment – it wasn't every day that Sirius Black didn't confuse me with an empty painting frame on the wall.

"What about the theory?" he asked. "Have you spent time going over it properly?"

"I thought you just waved your wand the right way and it was supposed to happen," I said stupidly and he clicked his tongue.

"Nah. Transfiguration is all about wanting something to change or appear or do whatever you want it to do," he said. "But it doesn't hurt to wave your wand the right way either."

"Right, okay," I said, although I didn't have a clue what he meant.

He gave me one of his squinted, scrunched up faces and I felt my neck flush.

"Why do you do that?" I blurted out, immediately regretting it.

He looked surprised. "Do what?"

I imitated his expression. "You know…that look."

He raised his eyebrows and then started to laugh. "It's a really bad habit I have, sorry."

"No…it's fine," I said, blushing. It was better than fine.

"Maybe I'll tell you why I do it someday," he said with one of his crooked smiles. "But for now, let's see you try the spell."

I blushed a violent shade of pink but gulped and picked up my wand.

After offering casual suggestions and watching me unsuccessfully attempt to vanish my pencil about fifty times, Sirius stopped me.

"What are you thinking about when you cast the spell?" he asked, propping his elbow up on the desk and leaning towards me.

Him.

"Um…not much."

He rolled his eyes. "That's why it's going so terribly. Try to at least _think_ about vanishing the thing, why don't you?"

"Okay," I said, with a nod – trying to imagine the pencil vanishing instead of picturing his handsome face.

The result was a glob of black gunk worse than the stuff I'd accidentally sent at Florence's hair the day before. And it was all over Sirius face.

He blinked and spat out a mouthful of goo before waving his wand and clearing it away.

"Right. Maybe we ought to start right at the beginning. Have you got your Transfiguration book?" He said, shaking his head.

"Sorry," I said, flustered and upset at my clumsiness but he waved my apologies off.

"My mate Peter used to be really bad at Transfiguration too. James and I had to spend hours every evening helping him, so–"

"So you've had lots of stuff shot at your face?" I finished for him before I realized how dirty it sounded. My eyes widened and I covered my mouth in alarm.

"That came out so wrong," I said as he started to laugh. I joined in and soon Madam Pince was beside us, shushing us loudly.

"This is no place for laughter!" she hissed before rounding a corner to go tell off a kissing couple behind the nearest set of shelves.

Sirius and I kept laughing, desperately trying to muffle the noise until he leaned back and held his sides. "Oh, I've got a stitch now," he chuckled. "What time is it?"

"Quarter past seven," I replied, fighting off another smile.

"Right…so we've been here about an hour and now I've got to go to Quidditch practice. Can we pick this up again tomorrow? You can read up on the theory tonight."

"How long are you stuck with me?" I asked as I packed away my things.

"My sentence is three hours," he said. "But I have to say I didn't think they'd be this funny."

I blushed again, feeling insanely happy at this particularly nice comment.

"Having said that though, I would like to get this out of the way, so maybe we can get the rest done tomorrow, all right?" he said, as we walked towards Madam Pince's desk.

"Yeah, no problem," I said, tucking a piece of loose hair behind my ear to keep my hands steady. He smiled at me easily and then approached Madam Pince with a grin.

"Can you sign me out, Miss?"

The Librarian narrowed her eyes at the clock and then at him. "You have two more hours to complete."

"I know Miss, that's why I've got you signing my record," Sirius said, slowly as if she were very dim.

She pursed her lips but nodded and handed him his signed slip of paper.

"See you tomorrow!" he said cheerfully at a volume rather louder than was allowed. Madam Pince scowled and Sirius cocked his head towards the exit as we both hurried out.

"So, Marlene is your mate, then?" He said, sticking his hands in his pockets as we walked down the empty corridor.

"Yeah, my best mate. How's she doing on the team?" I asked. What a wonderfully ordinary thing to say! I felt like patting myself on the back.

"She's good. James is obsessed with her," Sirius laughed. "I never thought he'd stray from Evans, but I reckon he's in love with your mate."

I smiled, feeling my heart hammering in my chest. "Really?"

"Well…not really, he just really likes her Keeping skills." He shrugged but closed his mouth abruptly as the sound of voices came clearly from the nearest corridor.

"Well, better dash. See you tomorrow," he said with a hurried glance at his watch and a wave before he pushed on a tapestry disguised as a solid wall and disappeared. At almost the same moment, Bertram Aubrey appeared around the corner, calling goodbye to his mates.

"Aw, Bottle-Specs – were you talking to yourself?" he said with a laugh when he saw me standing in the empty corridor by myself.

I shrugged. "Leave me alone, Bertram."

"No McKinnon around to defend you today?" he asked, falling into step with me.

I said nothing but continued to walk towards my Common Room.

"Why don't you get contacts, Bottle-Specs? Maybe you wouldn't be such an eyesore then," he said. "Sirius Black might even take your love notes seriously."

I stopped and turned to glare at him. "It was not a love note. And maybe the reason I don't wear contacts is to avoid advances from disgusting people like you!"

With that, I stomped away to Gryffindor Tower leaving Bertram scratching his head probably trying to work out what I'd meant.

* * *

A/N: Please review! I have moree...


	8. Just so sick of being ugly

A/N: Thank you so much for your reviews on the last chapter - they were my favourite yet and inspire me to post a new chapter today!

* * *

Chapter Eight: Just so sick of being ugly

At half past nine that evening, Benjy – the other Fifth year Prefect for Gryffindor found me in the Common Room for rounds. I hadn't bothered to look at the timetable of course and so, was caught completely by surprise. When we finally got going however, it was nice to just walk through the quiet corridors and talk to Benjy who was one of the nicest blokes I knew.

"You were partnered with Lily Evans for your first day of rounds, weren't you? How did that go?" Benjy asked as we opened some doors to broom cupboards on the Second Floor. Thankfully, no one was snogging in them so we could quietly proceed down to the Dungeons – the last corridor we were required to patrol before our shift was over.

"It was eventful, to say the least," I said. "Actually she was very nice – she's not too much of a stickler for rules but she did say she enjoys busting people. I think it gives her some bizarre kind of rush."

Benjy laughed. "That's got to be the complete opposite of Remus Lupin. I was partnered with him in the first week of term and he literally made us turn in the opposite direction every time we heard voices."

"That's probably because he was trying to avoid catching his mates. I think they're always out after curfew," I said, casually, waving to Nearly Headless Nick, who stopped and removed his hat.

"Ah, Prefects. There's a boy down the corridor cooking up the most disgusting smelling and possibly illegal potion," he said, pointing towards the classroom next to Slughorn's office.

"Oh, thanks Sir Nicholas," Benjy said, turning to me with a sigh. When Nick had floated away up the stairs we both groaned.

"Shall we just walk there _really _slowly and hope they've cleared out?" I asked and Benjy nodded. We walked very slowly down the corridor and turned the corner expecting the worst. Luckily, there was no one in sight and only the smell of the rather revolting potion lingered in the air. After looking (not very carefully) in to the classroom, we turned back around.

"So, how's Marlene? I don't see much of her now that she's on the Quidditch team…I see her with James Potter an awful lot," he asked, feigning nonchalance.

I smiled. "Don't worry Benjy – she and Potter are just friends."

He laughed uncomfortably but nodded at me gratefully. It was so obvious that he fancied Marlene; I thought it was a bit silly of him to even pretend it wasn't true.

"Anyway," he said, clearing his throat. "How are the extra Transfiguration lessons going?"

"I just had the one today, but it was okay. He's a good teacher but it is a bit odd learning from someone you've never spoken to before," I replied with a shrug.

"I thought you fancied him," Benjy said and I blushed.

"Even if I did, that doesn't mean I automatically would've spoken to him! That would require actual control over the words that come out of my mouth when he's around."

Benjy laughed and patted me on the back. "Don't look so embarrassed Effie, lots of girls fancy Sirius Black. You're not alone!" he said before we both stopped short and stiffened. Regulus Black, a Slytherin, fellow Fifth Year and Sirius' slightly less handsome brother, stood there looking at us with cold grey eyes. He tucked a potion vial into his robes and sneered at us.

"It's past curfew, Black – get back to your Common Room," Benjy said, thankfully trying to cover up the fact that we'd been discussing Regulus' brother. I didn't really know Regulus even though we sat near each other in Potions. He always looked completely indifferent to his surroundings, a lot like Sirius minus the crazy expressions, and barely spoke to anyone. Apparently, when he did, it was to be unkind.

"I'm a Prefect too, you know," he said, scornfully pointing at his badge before he turned to me. "Did I hear that you fancy my brother? A filthy, ugly, mudblood like you?"

Before I had a chance to retort, Benjy had pushed in front of me glaring dangerously at Regulus.

"HEY!" he yelled. "Don't use that disgusting word!"

"I don't think much of the company you keep, Fenwick. Aren't there any pureblood losers in Gryffindor that you can speak to?" Regulus drawled, looking at me with disgust. The truth was, he was the one who looked disgusting – as if he had a bad smell under his nose, which to be fair, might have been the case – considering the revolting Potion smell was stronger than ever.

Benjy practically growled at his words and instantly, both of their wands were out. Humiliated by the fact that Benjy felt he needed to defend me; I flung myself between them with my own wand out, and tried to stop them from fighting. After some loud bangs of smoke, the three of us emerged looking worse for the wear. Benjy's lip was bleeding, Regulus had a black eye and my glasses were broken and hanging off the bridge of my nose.

"WHAT – is the meaning of this?" Professor Slughorn had emerged from his office in a silk dressing gown looking like a furious, wild walrus as he advanced on us. "Dueling in the corridors – Prefects?" he snapped, glaring at all of us.

"But Professor- he called Effie a-"

"ENOUGH!" Slughorn boomed. "You can all take a detention after my lesson tomorrow. If I ever catch any of you fighting again, I will advise Professor Dumbledore to strip you of your Prefect badges! Regulus, I am incredibly disappointed in you! Miss Savage, go back to your common room this instant and Fenwick and Black, I will escort you to the Hospital Wing."

Benjy gave me a grimace as he followed a stony-faced Regulus and Slughorn and I faced the long, lonely walk back to the Common Room, alone with my thoughts.

The Common Room was bustling loudly with activity when I entered and since I'd repaired my glasses, everyone was oblivious to the fight I'd had in the corridor. Trying not to look at Sirius, who was chatting to Wendelin by the fireplace, I threw myself in to the corner by the window and irritably returned to my open Transfiguration book, which hadn't been moved in my absence. I glanced around the room and my eye landed on Marlene who was going over some Quidditch play with James Potter. I felt an irrational surge of jealousy. Marlene had all the luck – Benjy fancied her and she was obviously friends with James Potter now, which meant she could just go up and talk to him or his friends without anyone giving it a second thought. On the other hand, I couldn't even go up to Sirius to tell him that I would be late to his lesson tomorrow. I tried to imagine what would happen if I did have the nerve to talk to him in front of Wendelin but my brain was so filled with her high-pitched giggles, I cringed.

"You've got an awful face right now," Marlene said from beside me, breaking me from my thoughts and snapping me back to the present.

"Thanks for reminding me," I muttered, shutting my Transfiguration book and pulling out my Charms book and parchment.

"What?"

"Nothing," I said, opening my book and writing my name at the top of the parchment. I was so annoyed; I momentarily forgot how to spell it.

"Hey, we haven't talked since Herbology. Don't you want to tell me about your 'detention-lesson' with Sirius?" she asked, sitting down across from me and kicking me playfully under the table.

"What's the point? He ran off as soon as he heard someone coming around the corner," I mumbled, trying not to feel sorry for myself but failing miserably.

"WHAT?" she asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Benjy asked about you during rounds by the way. He definitely fancies you. Congratulations," I said, trying to smile as she stared at me in bewilderment. Her expression flickered but she ignored my comment.

"What's wrong, Eff?"

"Nothing!"

"Effie!"

"I'm just so sick of being ugly," I said with a groan. "And I'm sorry for taking it out on you. I'm just jealous because a great bloke fancies you and Sirius Black doesn't even want to be seen with me," I whispered, thumping my head on to the table and groaning as I felt the pain.

"You're not ugly! Stop that!" Marlene said angrily.

"Oh don't do that! You know that even if I were a supermodel behind these ugly things, no one would ever think to look at someone with bottle specs!" I snapped back, wrenching my glasses off my face and waving them at her.

"It's not your fault that you have to wear those glasses. You'll be able to switch to contacts at some point, won't you?" Marlene said.

"Why bother?" I mumbled, putting my glasses back on and writing a few sentences. After a few minutes of chilled silence, I stopped and with a sigh, looked at Marlene who was still watching me concernedly. "Sorry I'm a moody cow," I said miserably.

She smiled. "That's okay. We're all entitled to it and you rarely take advantage."

"Benjy fancies you," I whispered with a smile, putting my head close to hers and making her laugh.

"If he does – he's out of luck. How would I have time for a boyfriend when I have you to take care of?" she said rolling her eyes and laughing again when I reached across the table and smacked her.

We had Potions last thing the next day and Marlene was working at the same table as Emmeline and Jasper while I was at a table with Benjy and to our dismay, Regulus Black.

"You three can all learn to get along!" Slughorn had announced at the beginning of the lesson, making Rahul Patil, one of our Gryffindor classmates, change seats with Regulus. While Benjy and I had exchanged looks of horror, Regulus' face was the usual indifferent mask as he placed his ingredients on the table and began work. As a result of the seating selection, our table spent the majority of the lesson in silence, merely grunting if we got in each other's way. I actually got so good at deciphering Regulus' grunts – that I could tell which direction to move depending on if it was a low pitched "hmph" or a sullen "ugh".

Half an hour in to the lesson, I realized that I still hadn't told Sirius about being late. Cursing, I wondered what I should do when my eyes fell on Emmeline Vance who was working beside Marlene. She'd passed on messages for him before so surely she wouldn't mind doing it for me too. Checking that my Potion wouldn't bubble over, I walked over to their desk and smiled at the group.

"Why did Slughorn make Regulus Black sit with you, Effie?" Emmeline asked curiously.

"Oh…Benjy, Black and I got in a fight yesterday. He called me the M-word and it just sort of escalated from there," I said, telling her the story as Marlene and Jasper, who both knew about it nodded along.

"And Slughorn wouldn't even listen to the whole story? He plays favourites like no one's business!" Emmeline said irritably.

"Yes well…anyway, I wanted to ask you a favour, Emmeline," I said, quite touched by her anger on my behalf.

She raised an eyebrow. "What's that?"

"Could you please tell Sirius that I won't be able to work with him until seven thirty because I've got a detention after class?" I focused on keeping my voice very even and my face at a normal colour so that she wouldn't tease me.

"Why don't you tell him yourself?" Emmeline asked in confusion.

"I don't think he really likes to talk to me in public," I admitted.

Marlene made a noise of outrage and Jasper rolled his eyes but Emmeline nodded and gave me an understanding smile. She was clearly the only realist sitting at that table.

"I doubt that's true, but I'll tell him if you want me to."

"Thanks. I better get back to my Potion – I can't really afford to let it blow up!" I said before casting a look over my shoulder and whispering, "Although if it singed off Black's pretty eyebrows, I wouldn't complain!"

* * *

A/N: Thanks for reading! Please review - you can have the dust of Regulus Black's singed eyebrow...ugh gross, maybe not that! ;)


End file.
